Some grocery stores closed after getting a rush of customers Monday night. Thousands of families hunkered down together, their offices and schools out of service -- idle parents posted pictures of their children's ice-men on Facebook. But despite the ghostly feel to the city, many restaurants and other stores insisted on staying open.

Now, businesses are starting to calculate their losses while waiting for the big thaw.

During a storm briefing Wednesday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said it is too early determine the total economic impact of the cold weather though the city is expected to provide those numbers in the coming days.

"We don't have it now but it's not good," Landrieu said.

At the Port of New Orleans, Executive Director Gary LaGrange said Wednesday morning (Jan. 29) that the impact to operations there was noticeable but minimal. Wednesday marked the second day the river was closed, because river pilots had no safe way to get to work, he said.

Vessels were either at anchor out in the Gulf of Mexico, waiting to come in, or at the docks waiting to go out to their next destination, he said.

"The impact is going to be fairly minimal because we haven't lost any cargo or diverted ships into another port or another area," LaGrange said.

The ice storm missed disrupting any cruise ship journeys. The Carnival Elation was expected to make it to the river Wednesday night, LaGrange said, and passengers will disembark starting at 7 a.m. Thursday. The port will have handouts for passengers indicating which highway and road routes they can use to drive home, he said.

Meanwhile, plumbers in the greater New Orleans area Wednesday were bracing for a rush of service calls later in the week. While pipes are still frozen, homeowners might not know they have problem until after they thaw.

"By tomorrow, if they have pipes that are frozen, they probably will have water spraying somewhere once it gets going again," said Pete Graffeo of Pete's Plumbing.

Graffeo said the worst ice storm he remembers occurred around Christmas in the 1980s, when cold weather set in unexpectedly. Residents went without water for weeks, and plumbers worked to make the weather-related repairs for a month or more, he said.

This time, he said, residents had more of a warning.

"People are more informed nowadays," Graffeo said.

At Commander's Palace, co-owner Ti Adelaide Martin said their philosophy was it's easier to keep restaurants open rather than close and re-open again. There were no changes to the hours of operations at Commander's, Cafe Adelaide or SoBou, Martin said.

Some reservations were canceled with visitors unable to get into the city, but on the other hand, some people were stuck here, she said.

"They need something to do, and we are happy to help with that," Martin said. "We want to show them what New Orleans is all about and always making the best of a tough situation. We're a tough bunch and we like to stick things out and take care of people when everything else is not going so well."

The storm swept in as the National Association of Automobile Dealers convention at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center came to a close. Mark Romig, president and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corp., said most delegates of NADA were able to leave town, but about 400 hotel rooms associated with the meeting were booked through Tuesday, when flights were cancelled.

Romig said his group doesn't yet have specific numbers detailing the storm's impact. "It certainly had an impact," Romig said. "It's not a healthy thing for the economy, but fortunately it's going to be relatively short-lived so we can make up for it."

Despite the frigid weather, he said, downtown saw some brisk business. "People who were in town were certainly enjoying the city, which was a good thing for businesses that were open," he said.

Meanwhile, officials at Ochsner Health System prepared hospitals for the ice this week by checking on food supplies, making sure generators were ready for any power failures and keeping support service staff on site, Chief Operating Officer Michael Hulefeld said.

Emergency rooms were less busy during the storm compared to a typical day, and operations ran smoothly, he said. About 25 percent of the system's employees worked on site, and another 25 percent worked remotely. Clinics were closed Tuesday and part of Wednesday, and elective surgeries were temporarily put on hold.

Clinics will have extended hours to help patients whose appointments were canceled, he said.

Hulefeld said officials are still calculating the full economic impact, "but it's obviously a multimillion dollar event for us."

Still, life moved on despite the cold. Fourteen babies were born at Ocshner hospitals in Orleans and Jefferson parishes on Tuesday. Five babies were on their way Wednesday morning.

Staff reporter Richard A. Webster contributed to this report.

Stay with NOLA.com for updates on the impact of the ice-storm on the local economy.

Updated at 2:43 p.m. to include comments from city and tourism officials.

Updated at 12:34 p.m. to include comments from the co-owner of Commander's Palace.